Request For Aga Khan Foundation

The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is a non-denominational international development agency established in 1967 by His Highness the Aga Khan. Its mission is to develop and promote creative solutions to problems that impede social development, primarily in Asia and East Africa. Created as a private, non-profit foundation under Swiss law, it has branches and independent affiliates in 19 countries.

AKF seeks to provide sustainable solutions to long-term problems of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and ill health. In Afghanistan, AKF works with rural communities in mountainous, remote or resource poor areas to improve quality of life in the areas of natural resource management, market development, governance, education and health.

The Aga Khan Foundation, Afghanistan (AKF (Afg)) is an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), a group of international, private, non-denominational development agencies working to improve living conditions and opportunities for people in some of the poorest parts of the developing world. The Network’s organizations have individual mandates that range from the fields of health and education to architecture, rural development and promotion of private-sector enterprise and institutions that seek to empower communities and individuals, usually in disadvantaged circumstances, to improve living conditions and opportunities.

Background:

Aga Khan Foundation’s Economic Inclusion (EI) program in Afghanistan was established in mid-2009, followed by a transitional phase in 2010. In its previous form, as Enterprise Development (ED), the program’s emphasis was on using local systems to support private enterprise development by promoting local ownership and sustainability. Although EI still maintains the core functions of enterprise development, the new strategy aims to increase program impact by promoting inclusive economic development for poor communities through effective market systems, sustainably supported by capable local institutions, cooperative networks of people, and an enabling policy environment.

EI is divided into four programmatic categories, which include Value Chain Development, Vocational Training, Business Development Services (BDS), Business Membership Organizations (BMOs). The primary target beneficiaries comprise unskilled and/or semi-skilled youths and entrepreneurs, both male and female. The program works with various operators in its selected value chains, including input suppliers, producers, processors, traders, and consumers. Vocational training is facilitated to upgrade youths’ skills and enhance employability, whereas business management skills are provided to entrepreneurs. Capacity-building is also given to business service providers so that they can serve their entrepreneur clients. In addition, through its business association component, the program also aims to reach larger numbers of entrepreneurs through their member groups, cooperatives, business associations and chambers of commerce.

Training Rationale

To support business associations, Economic inclusion has been establishing business groups compiling entrepreneur (farmers) to act collectively and deliver quality service to the members where this is one of the key value-added of a business organization, by providing service they help members to cut transaction costs, optimize regulatory compliance and overall improve their performance thus contributing to sustainability and growth of business. From the institutional perspective, as well as advocacy whereas the group act as bridge between government and the members ( entrepreneurs/farmer) that can easily reach the voices to the government as well as governance and revenue-building has been the works which are done through the Business membership organization, so to achieve the ultimate impact and have a future light , EI believes that each existed BMO ( business membership organization ) needs to develop a business and strategic plan to orient them on different concepts, organizations work in the face of increasing service demand, fierce revenue pressures, and limited internal resources. Deciding on priorities and raising the funds necessary to enable the organization to advance business interests at the regional and national levels cries out for a strategic approach to the determination of priorities and their effective delivery. As well as business plan has.

Preparation of strategic plans and conducting the training on the strategic planning for all 12 BMO in collaboration with the BMOs members and AKF (Afg) EI department. All the 12 strategic plans need to be translated into the local language.
Preparation of business plans and conduct business planning training for all 12 BMO in collaboration with a BMO member and AKF (Afg) EI departments. (Market research through the BMO members)
Methods and Approaches

AKF (Afg) EI department proposes the training method should be in a way that all BMOs key members should be involved in developing the strategic and business plans, field visit on market research. SWOT and PEST analysis should be conducted in close collaboration with BMOs members and AKF (Afg) departments.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

The successful contractor will need to work together with the AKF (Afg) EI Takhar regional Office in accordance with the specific duties assigned below:

Developing of 12 strategic and business plans.
Translation of 12 strategic and business plans into the local language.
Developing the training and the relevant materials for strategic and business plans;
Planning and executing the training in the field for BMOs and AKF (Afg) EI team.
Managing all project activities, including training, data collections, quality control, work plan preparations, and reporting.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the duties and responsibilities of the consultant are as follows:

The Consultant will visit the program area in Takhar (Warsaj, Kalafgan, Baharak, Dashti Qala, Khaja Bahawuddin, and Taloqan) to conduct business and strategic planning training for 12 BMOs.
Help the BMO members on the provision of quality data on business and strategic planning development.
Present and communicate the findings with AKF (Afg) and other EI staff.

The contractors should have the following qualifications:

Extensive experience in business and strategic plan development for Community Institutions, the SMEs and entrepreneurs.
Experience in preparing and writing professional and academic reports especially in English.
Experience working in the regions in which these training will take place, including knowledge of the local language(s) and context;
An ability to work to tight timelines;
Ability and willingness to work in remote, hard-to-reach parts of Takhar province.
Ability to prepare a business plan and strategic plan for each BMO in two languages English and Dari
Ability to convey the message in a simple way so, the members understand it.
Ability to prepare a professional report in English, and also present the findings

Work location(s) and Reporting Line

The training will be taking place in some district of Takhar province (Warsaj, Kalafgan, Baharak, Dashti Qala, Khaja Bahawuddin, and Taloqan) for 12 established Business membership organizations, also the contractor will present and report the final plans sheet to the EI regional manager, and also the contractor is expected to work closely with AKF-A’s EI department, Takhar regional office.

Schedule and Terms of Payment

It will be discussed with the consultancy and the agreement will be included in the contract.

Deliverables

AKF (Afg) is expecting the following deliverables to be provided:

A final training report which includes the training method, design, participants’ feedbacks, and techniques and materials used.
Final 12 strategic and business plans in two languages (English and Dari) BMOs, hard and soft.
A PowerPoint presentation on how the training has been conducted and what was the participants (BMO member’s feedbacks) to the EI team.
And provide quality pictures
All the materials will the property of AKF (Afg) and after the completion of this work AKF (Afg) has the right to use the information in their future programing’s

Consultancy Timeline

The timeline, key milestones, and deadlines for this assignment are as follow:

From Sep - Oct 2019

AKF (Afg) team is expecting to receive a detailed and comprehensive work plan to be followed by the contractors; for execution and implementation of the assignment.

Application: Applicants meeting the above requirements are requested to submit a cover letter along with their CV and the names of three references electronically to takhar.hr@akdn.org no later than September 24, 2019 or submit hard copy to AKF Afghanistan, Takhar Regional Office,: PD-1, Sarak-e- Maktab Tajerbawy Sayed Abdurrahman Shaheed, Close to Haji Wazir Hafiz Baik House, Taloqan City, Takhar Province, Afghanistan

Important Notes:

 please quote the Vacancy Number as the Subject of the e-mail when applying